I have recently heard about your decision to try and remove Hope and the District from the current Chilliwack riding into the Fraser Canyon riding and aligned with Merritt.

As far as I am concerned, this is a bad idea and will in no way improve any aspect of our governance or more importantly our social or economic outlook.

Hope and the area immediately surrounding Hope has by far greater community ties with Chilliwack and further into the valley than it might with Merritt.

It troubles me greatly to think that your decision is being based strictly on numbers. In my opinion greater weight should be given to the community ties and connections than just numbers and clearly we in Hope conduct more business with the Valley. Plus, all of our regional governance issues are with the FVRD not up the Canyon. Our community is part of the FVRD and our Mayor as well as our regional directors are all part of the FVRD.

Hospital, education, city services, emergency services are all tied to Chilliwack and the FVRD.

Moving us into the Fraser Canyon riding makes no sense and I, I Hope resident, do not support your proposal.